How does it indicate that? I just got a number '104'. I checked H as you asked and it says it's a 'sum of levels of all nearby monsters' - how can I possibly use this number to actually solve anything? All it does is give me a very vague idea of a danger level.
Like a 'level 80' can mean there's one level 80 monster that will kill me instantly, or that every field around it is surrounded by a level 10 monster. There's no correlation between monster placement and the number.
There is option to flag mines, but like I said, it is impossible to predict where enemies are.
Not only that, but maps are so filled with stuff - sometimes completely meaningless stuff like a brick wall - that don't show the threat number. It took me a bit to realize the sword icon means combat, but I get it now.
It seems impossible to play this in any way meaningfully without dying after 2-3 moves. Worse, I do not understand how I could prevent dying if the only thing I can do is click tiles. Clicking tiles will almost always result in me losing health , and I cannot actually do anything to recover health if I don't get lucky and find a potion.
Currently, you're completely at mercy of RNG that you won't accidentally click a level 100 monster and die instantly.
In fact: can I even level up? I played this game 20 times and haven't managed to level up *once*.
My recommendation would be to: make monster level distribution uneven, making it so low level monsters are MUCH more likely to appear and high level monsters are much more rare; and heal player for 10-20% of health every time they click a tile that does not have a monster in it.
Out of all the 'sub-MB' fps projects like Quake 13k and .kkrieger this is so much better to play it's unreal. It's not a tech demo, it's a genuine fun game. I will return to it just to find all the secrets (well, I found the shotgun secret in level 2 but have no idea how to get it).
If you made a 128k version that simply includes more levels I would genuinely buy it.
The only issue I have is I wish for a suicide key because sometimes you can clip into elevator platforms, and with no restart button there's no option but to restart entire game.
Also in level 3, in the room with stairs where armor secret is stacked on boxes after a platforming section, for some reason movement becomes super janky when approaching stairs and you can't jump normally. I found that you can however strafejump up these stairs so it is not game-breaking.
I would say - as much as it's important to have feedback, it's *also* important to be careful to not listen to all of the feedback all the time, it's a decision. That's how we get mess like helper character like Atreus spoiling all the puzzles in new God of War, because 1% of playtesters got stuck for too long, and devs tried to appeal to *every* player rather than the group they were originally targeting.
Here's an example: Boss Key in Zelda is something that players find okay. But your three switches aren't, even though they are functionally the same concept, it's mostly polish (story and assets) that are different. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to examine - why?
Maybe because keys have been a long-established mechanic in Zelda, even before boss keys have been a thing.
Maybe because they're generic - something like apparently magical switches opening a room sounds like a gimmick that would be specific to one dungeon, while keys seem more like common objects.
Maybe it's affordance to reality - the idea that not all keys will fit all locks is an obvious one with parallel in real life, while we do not really have context for magical switches.
Maybe it's about the mechanical differences actually - a Boss Key in Zelda gives you a clear 'end' point to the dungeon, an 'aha!' moment where you know you're at the very end and it's time to backtrack to finish things. You couldn't get that by splitting that moment into 3 points.
Or maybe that person doesn't actually like that mechanic in Zelda either - in which case, you'd have to make a tough decision if you should include that mechanic despite the feedback, because you don't want to compromise your vision of the game for a small minority of players who probably don't like 2D Zeldas anyway.
I wonder if the reaction would be different if instead of switches, boss door would still be opened by keys - but by three special keys (red, green and blue?) that you have to find throughout the dungeon (perhaps with a custom graphic for the boss dorr showing it clearly having three locks). Maybe even it'd allow you to have special areas openable only by these keys, rather than by generic disposable keys.
Okay so having played it - (I played the Mega Drive version) - I feel what you need to focus on is making gameplay more skill based. Your movement does not really allow you to dodge enemy fire, and unlike in original you cannot use skillfull aim to take down enemies quickly. So the game becomes a little bit uncontrollable. Crouching doesn't do anything and appears to be only used to switch weapons because all weapons are perfectly auto-aiming - that's probably fine for player, but I'd remove that for the enemies, and constrain their aiming abilities to few specific angles.
It is incredibly impressive, so these two cents are just meant as a constructive feedback, not as a takedown.
Okay so I tested out most recent build... and I can't figure out how to get into a level? I start out on a yellow tile and I can't go into it. If I press Down button, I move downwards, but get bounced back with a "wrong" noise. Pressing "Accept" key does nothing.
Insanely charming kaizo platformer. Writing elevates it, and the mechanics are interesting - I especially like that collectibles move on a track, makes for some interesting timing challenges. 8/10 would escape again
If you're already doing fixes, it'd be nice if camera would be more oriented not entirely facing only the right? Like show at least 1/3d of the left side of the screen, it would make going on platforms to your left a bit more doable.
Anyway, the game is fun aside from some quirks! I like how your gun is hitscan, refreshing change from so many platformers where you can somehow see slow bullets in midair.
I guess it makes sense to use AI if the current boxart is basically 'placeholder'. It's really fun to see this game evolve and improve. You're definitely inspiring me to get off my butt and like, go back to making games.
6. I realized you can interact with certain objects with E. But there is nothing that really makes it clear? Maybe you could put huge wall switches like the ones in Doom. Or even lift a texture from Half Life 1 or 2 - the elevator buttons maybe?
7. You cannot hit enemies that aren't activated. Bullets straight up don't work and do grey puffs like on dead objects. You need to first activate them to be able to kill them, which is weird.
8. There doesn't appear to be vertical autoaim. This is a key feature of Doom - because you can't aim up or down, the game aims up or down for you. If enemy (or anything damagable like explosive barrel) is anywhere in middle line of the screen, the game will automatically aim at them. This doesn't have that, which makes climbing stairs very precarious since I can't use explosive barrels to clear out high enemies.
9. Not really a glitch, but maybe hitting enemy with saws from gravity gun could be more satisfying? You have programmed gibbing - maybe just make it deal enough damage to gib basic zombies?
Hey, would you mind if somone ripped assets from this to see if one can recreate this in actual Doom? Could be cool to compare them.
Anyway, so bug reports:
1. I straight up don't know how to get past the blade trap. In the actual game you do it by crouching... but you can't crouch here. And it just kills me. What do I do? I assumed I have to shoot it, but that doesn't work. Is it a timing thing?
2. Before the blade trap, in the outdoor arae with the headcrab missile, on the opposite wall from the entrance - if I touch it, zombies can hit me through the wall.
3. Even earlier, I gibbed an enemy by tossing a fuel barrel at it. But then, from the explosion a gas tank exploded... and the gibbed zombie came back to wholeness to burn alive from the gas.
4. In the online version, if I move the mouse at all to the right, it will keep moving slowly to the right. I have to constantly aim left to reset it. This does not happen in standalone windows download.
Okay, one advantage of not doing it in Doom - GZDoom doesn't support an online embed, lol. (There is an online version of Doom, but it's much more vanilla and less advanced). Great stuff!
New controls feel a slight bit awkward - one solution would be letting player BOTH Arrow Keys and WSAD for movement at the same time (with jump being space and z, and boomerang being k and x). Or just offer remappable controls, or at least multiple control schemes. Similarly, it feels a bit awkward in level select to have to move your entire hand over to Enter just to select a level.
But I really do like that you can swim freely in every direction, it goes a long way to make the water level a lot more fun.
So far the games feel extremely easy - it's pretty hard to get hit by anyone, and you have six hits - but since these are just the early levels, I think that is just fine. The movement feels nice and that's the important part.
The controls are a bit borked. If you go left or right, and THEN go up or down to go diagonally - you wil continue to go diagonally even if you stop pressing up/down.
In the future, please give an alternative key for jumping. It's really awkward to play platformers where you have to press Up to jump - this only works in fighting game. Shift, S, W or Z would all work.
I'm saying that because I love everything else about the game - it's fun, snappy, charming. Love it. I just want more levels... ;_;
You succeeded! I love how the terrain is lush and detailed with strong color schemes, while monsters are more subdued. Reminds me of games like Little Samson or Crystalis.
This game looks BEAUTIFUL. So many NES homebrew have graphics as an afterthought, while this looks better than most major commercial releases. I love it!
Then I clearly don't understand something, because trying to shoot while on a ladder made me shoot either up or down (depending on last direction I moved in)
I really don't understand why I'm not allowed to shoot left and right on the ladders. Most of the time it just leaves me completely defenseless for no reason at all.
I found a glitch in the HTML version where for some reason the field refused to rotate on the very first game? But it worked just fine on every next playthrough, and on future runs.
So may modern retro 3D revivals are based around either mid-90s VGA PCs or about PS1/N64, it's nice to see someone make a game based on the 80's early 3D games for 8bit microcomputers like Elite or Sentinel.
